NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ATL03LA151
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The failure of the elevator control pushrod, that resulted in an uncontrolled descent and subsequent in-flight collision with ground.
Factual narrative
On September 30, 2003, at 1700 central daylight time, a Sheppard S-2, N39S, registered to and operated by a private pilot, lost control in-flight and collided with the ground in Obion County, Tennessee. The personal flight was operated under the provisions of Title 14 Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The airplane sustained substantial damage, and the pilot received serious injuries. The flight departed Union City, Tennessee, on September 30, 2003, at 1645. According to the pilot, while practicing steep turns at 2500 feet, elevator control was lost. The airplane began an uncontrolled descent, and collided with the ground. Examination of the airplane revealed that the elevator control pushrod was broken. Review of the maintenance records revealed that the 1977 Sheppard S-2 airplane had accumulated a total of 1184 total airframe hours. No record of the time in service was recovered for the failed component. Efforts to recover information from the pilot failed. According to the pilot, while practicing steep turns at 2500 feet, elevator control was lost. The airplane began an uncontrolled descent, and collided with the ground. Examination of the airplane revealed that the elevator control pushrod was broken. Review of the maintenance records revealed that the 1977 Sheppard S-2 airplane had accumulated a total of 1184 total airframe hours. No record of the time in service was recovered for the failed component. Efforts to obtain information from the pilot was not successful. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2003_ATL03LA151.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Faculty research project
Reconfigurable Guidance and Control Systems for Emerging On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) Space Vehicles
Dynamic response to emergent situations is a necessity in the on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (OSAM) field, because traditional on-orbit guidance and control (G&C) cannot respond effic…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2019 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Satellite Maintenance: An Opportunity to Minimize the Kessler Effect
Recently, there has been an emphasis on the growing problem of orbital debris. While the advantages of placing satellites into space are numerous, advances in satellite technology combined with the gr…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2015 · Conference paper
The Implementation of Safety Management Systems in Maintenance Operations
Literature for Safety Management Systems (SMS) that apply to flight operations is abundant, but there is a limited supply of SMS-related literature for maintenance operations.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Contractor Report (CR)
Icing Physics Studies Using the 3D SIDRM Test Article: 2023 Icing Tests Analysis
In-flight icing is an important safety issue and is a factor that affects aircraft design and performance. Newer regulations are driving a need for improvements in airframe and engine icing simulation…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Assisted 5G Network Slicing: A Comparative Study of MAPPO, MADDPG, and MADQN
The growing demand for robust, scalable wireless networks in the 5G-and-beyond era has led to the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to enhance coverage in dense urb…
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